News Comment/COMENTARI AL DIA

Corruption that Kills/CORRUPCIÓ QUE MATA

Corruption that Kills

by Josep C. Verges

Joan Ridao (left) all smiles with the corrupt presumed innocent Duran who pled guilty in Court that his party was 100% corrupt. 0% of Duran’s criminals have gone to jail. Below: Peter Bush, English translator of The Grey Notebook by Josep Pla and of “Still Life N. 41” by Teresa Solana, nominated to the Edgar Award 2013 of the Mystery Writers of America.

“Women that Kill” is the association of Catalan woman crime novelists. At the Oxford and Cambridge in Catalonia Christmas Lunch I sat next to Peter Bush, English translator of The Grey Notebook by Josep Pla he will present in New York, and his wife. Teresa Solana explained that an independent Catalonia needed a thorough spring clean: “Politics are totally corrupt and society enmeshed in privilege, a far cry from European meritocracy.” Political corruption also kills.

Joan Ridao, the former general secretary of Esquerra, sent me his “Against Corruption, a conflict between ethics and power” (Published by Angle). When I denounced the corrupt presumed innocent Duran in 2000, when Esquerra was nothing, he wanted to change politics. Now he doesn’t even mention Duran. I wrote back: “I see that you make use of many newspaper articles, but none from Diari de Girona, the only paper that has systematically exposed corruption. No mention either of the “The Black Stain of CiU” by Callol and Cid, nor of my books “All Duran’s Men, the Political Corruption of Catalonia” and “The Corrupters and the Corrupt.” The first of my books lists hundreds of press articles about corruption and the second discusses ethics and political economy. Maybe you didn’t want to mention Catalonia?” The today professor and member of the Statute of Autonomy Council of Guarantees replied: “One of the demands by the publisher was to avoid an exposé of current episodes. I made a general observation using just a few specific cases. I own and have read ”All Duran’s Men.” Many years ago.” I had to clarify: “The Corrupters and the Corrupt” is centred on the School of Salamanca in the 16th C and no current event is mentioned! If you haven’t read the book, you should.” His excuses are lame. In his book there is plenty of corruption in Madrid, Valencia, Italy, the United States, all over the world except in virginal Catalonia, glanced at in the Palau Case or Duran’s court plea in 2013 that he was truly corrupt, but Ridao gives no further explanation. Ridao admits that the political class is mediocre, ignorant, immoral, bureaucratic and centred on the personality cult. Corruption has disenchanted voters after the “years of corruption” were uncovered by the economic crisis. “The truth cannot be denied,” he admits, nor “the iron law of omertà”. He finds corruption banal, almost bored having to talk about it, but he admits with André Glucksmann that the challenge today is “democracy or corruption.” And he asks: “Are we now living in an African kleptocracy? Often it looks this way.” The cost of corruption is more than €40 billion a year, overwhelmingly political. For every corrupt civil servant there are one hundred crooked politicians. The majority are never tried (“barely 10% are formally accused”) and none go to jail so Ridao has the barefacedness to claim it affects only 0.7% of politicians. He admits generalised corruption has made Justice inoperable. On top politicians have designed their own justice system: ”All this privileged court system does not exist anywhere in Europe or the USA. Grosso modo in Spain 220.000 have court privileges.” Nor does any democracy make use of so many pardons. They remain criminals without having to g o to jail. Not one of Duran’s criminals nor the other 10,158 pardoned since 1996 went to jail. President Obama in contrast has pardoned 22 since 2008. Ridao concludes depressingly: “Perhaps there will just simply be a change like in the Gattopardo where everything stays the same.” The women that kill are right, political corruption kills and a total spring clean essential.